Justice League

Screen Shots

Synopsis

Previously in “Knight of Shadows” Part One: Jason Blood, a friend of the Batman and the cursed alter ego of the demon Etrigan, has been hunting the sorceress Morgaine Le Fay. She seeks the Philosopher’s Stone, a relic from the days of King Arthur, that will allow her to restore Camelot and place her son Mordred on its throne. Having traced the stone to Castle Branek, Le Fay learns that it must have been taken by either Professor Henry Moss or the publisher Harv Hickman. The Justice League separates into two groups to reach both men before Le Fay. Etrigan, Batman, and J’onn J’onzz  get to Moss first, but he doesn’t have the Stone. Their trap for Le Fay is ruined when J’onn stalls before her illusion. Etrigan then accuses the Martian of being in her thrall.

Batman was injured by during Le Fay’s escape, and later in the Watchtower infirmary, J’onn apologises to him for hesitating. J’onn thinks Etrigan may be right about him being tainted by Morgaine’s sorcery.  Meanwhile, the Flash and Wonder Woman have managed to get into Harv Hickman’s famous Halloween Fancy Dress Party. The magazine publisher shows them around his mansion as costumed party goers dance the night away. The Flash gets distracted by a pair of Hickman’s models, but Wonder Woman tricks Hickman into confessing that his success comes from a Stone that he discovered during the excavation of Castle Branek. Wonder Woman’s retorts “Let me get this straight, you possess the most powerful object in the world, but all you wished for was money and women?”

Luckily for Harv, Morgaine Le Fay arrives before Wonder Woman can focus her anger. Wonder Woman grabs the Stone and dodges Le Fay’s magical blasts. Morgaine then transforms Hickman into a monstrous worm which attacks Wonder Woman and drives her through the wall. The Flash distracts the Worm while the party goers escape, but he gets knocked down while saving a woman dressed as at Cat. He is saved by Wonder Woman who fights off the Worm with one hand – she’s carrying the Philosopher’s Stone in the other. Le Fay almost manages to wrestle the Stone from Wonder Woman, but is stopped by the sudden arrival of Etrigan. Wonder Woman is furious at having to run from a fight, but Etrigan and the Flash convince her to take the Stone as far away from Morgaine as possible. Morgaine overcomes Etrigan, but the Flash rushes him to safety. Le Fay lets out a howl of anger and vanishes in a firestorm that destroys Hickman’s mansion.

The Flash, for one, considers their adventure over once the Philosopher’s Stone is safe in a high-tech vault on the Justice League’s satellite Watchtower. However, Etrigan isn’t convinced. Morgaine reaches out to J’onn again and pulls him back into the illusion of his wife and the living Mars. He fights her off this time, but Morgaine believes that he is weakening. She teleports her own demons on to the Watchtower to occupy the rest of the League whilst she tries again to enthrall J’onn. The sheer number of demons threatens to overwhelm the League until Etrigan has the Flash create a maelstrom, a whirlwind, around them. Etrigan then uses his own magic to turn Morgaine’s legions into ice statues which are shattered by the maelstrom. The battle is won, but in the chaos the Philosopher’s Stone has gone. Etrigan accuses the League of ignoring his warnings about J’onn and gets slapped across the face by Wonder Woman.

J’onn has taken the Javelin 7 and the Philosopher’s Stone and refuses to respond to radio hails. Etrigan asks if they are really ready to taken down one of their own. Batman responds that “I repeat, whatever it takes!” With J’onn on his way with the Stone Morgaine feels no reason to hide her location anymore. She transforms London into a medieval style fortress from which Mordred will rule his new empire. The spell is only temporary, but the Stone’s power will allow her to make it permanent. J’onn is just about to hand her the Stone when the League vault through a magical portal created by Etrigan.

Etrigan goes after J’onn in a murderous rage. He call’s Morgaine’s offer to restore Mars “honey and lies,” but J’onn passion to see his family again is too strong.  They duke it out through Mordred’s throne room whist the rest of the League keep Le Fay occupied. The Batman is the first to strike at Morgaine, but a batarang is useless against her shields.  Mordred proves that he’s just as adept at throwing magical blasts at the Flash and Wonder Woman as his mother. He then animates his Throne into a snarling chair-beast that attacks the Batman. J’onn’s shape shifting allows him to get the upper hand in his fight with Etrigan. The Martian grabs Etrigan by the head and telepathically overwhelms him. However, J’onn sees into Etrigan/Jason Blood’s mind and witnesses his own betrayal by Morgaine. Etrigan reverts to Jason Blood as he passes out.

Morgaine approaches J’onn and asks him for the Stone. He takes a last look at the unconscious Blood before holding out the Stone. However, J’onn suddenly crushes it to dust with his super-strength and tells her “No!” He could have had anything, but he tells Morgaine that her price was “too high.” The sorceress doesn’t attempt to fight back, but instead vanishes in a show of light and smoke to prepare for the next battle between herself and Etrigan. When she vanishes the spell that had transformed London fades and the city returns to normal. J’onn is despondent, he apologizes to his friends and offers his resignation from the Justice League. He turns to walk way, but it is Jason Blood who speaks up. He tells J’onn that Etrigan was wrong about him and that he only wished he’d had J’onn’s strength all those centuries ago. Instead it is he who is cursed to walk on alone through the centuries until his betrayal is paid for.

Commentary

DC Comics and the Playboy connection

During the 1950s and 1960s DC Comics was part of a group of companies co-owned by Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz. Another of those companies was Independent News Distribution (IND) – the Diamond Distribution of its day -  a distribution company that distributed DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Liebowitz wanted more material for IND so he branched out into magazine distribution with Mad Magazine. He also bought the distribution contract for Hugh Hefner’s new Playboy title. IND had distributed adult material before, back in the 1930s, but the addition of Playboy seems all that more surprising to us when we consider that the comics side of the business was still reeling from the effects of the Seduction of the Innocent scandal.

Members at the Playboy Clubs would only be served if they had their membership key. These were sequentially numbered and the IND executives were given keys that had rather low key numbers (meaning they were high-status early members). I’m sure I’ve read an anecdote in an issue of Alter Ego about this, but I can’t seem to find that issue at the time of writing.

At one point in this episode Harv Hickman, the Hugh Hefner pastiche,  cries out “My Neiman” after his favourite painting is destroyed. LeRoy Neiman is an American artist who started out working alongside Hugh Hefner before he started Playboy. Neiman’s artwork has featured in Playboy and he illustrates its jokes page. I don’t know for sure, but the Harv of Harv Hickman could come from Harvey Kurtzman. He was one of the founders of Mad Magazine and briefly flirted with editing an adult version called Trump. His publisher for that venture was Hugh Hefner.

Batuzi

A producer for 20th Century Fox, is said to have been at a screening of an old Batman 1940s movie serial at Hugh Hefner’s legendary mansion when he got the idea of reinventing Batman as a comedy TV series (the telling varies, it could have been at the Playboy Club). The Batman at Harv Hickman’s Halloween Ball is going the Batuzi, a dance made famous by Adam West as Batman in ABC’s TV show. It involves the dancer drawing the first two fingers of each hand across the eyes in a way that suggests a mask. The rest of it is rather free form.

Notes

• “Is that the best you can do my immortal beloved?” – At one point Morgaine Le Fay refers to Jason Blood as her “immortal beloved.” It is a name that Ludwig Van Beethoven gave to an unknown lover in three famous love letters. It was also the title of the 1994 film Immortal Beloved which is based on the mystery surrounding those letters.

Opinion

Highlights

Demons on the Watchtower. I love the Flash/Etrigan combo.

Oddities

Let me just say this for the record: Wonder Woman asks Hugh Hefner (“Harve Hickman”) if she can see his stone and he takes her into his bedroom.

My Thoughts

“Knight of Shadows” must rank as one of the strangest Justice League episodes. It’s up there with Wonder Woman as a pig in an slaughterhouse and baby Etrigan. On the surface it doesn’t look too strange – a lot  of myth and magic – but you can’t get away from the fact that for a third of this episode the Justice League are fighting a transmogrified Hugh Hefner during a Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion. It’s brilliantly done, but I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall when that was suggested (“You want them to fight who?!?!”).

J’onn J’onzz betraying the League is always a tough one to handle. It’s been done a couple of times in the comics, but it’s at odds as his station as the heart-and-soul of the comic book League. They manage to pull it off quite convincingly in the cartoon and also to expand on his characterisation. His take down of Etrigan is brutal and a sign of just how far Morgaine has pushed him. It also nicely sets up his pull-back.

4.0